My Chuwi Vi8 Ultimate edition arrived today. Unfortunately the Hi8 has not shipped yet, so that will come later on. The Vi8 Ultimate edition is the Vi8, but with a new white look that is similar in design with the Vi10HD and Vi10 Dual OS I recently reviewed. It shares the metal trim and more squared of edges. It doesn’t have a glass back, like the vi10 but it does have it’s slightly faster Atom Z3736F which clocks up to 2.16Ghz. It’s the first 8 inch dual os tablet to use this Atom SoC.
My unboxing video is below.
First impressions:
- Looks and feels better in hand than the Chuwi VI8 first models (The black ones)
- Android rom is very light and the DPI is good.
Speaker sounds like it could be the same as the Vi8’s which is a real shame, I will test it some more and confirm this.- No HDMI port of course, removed for cost saving?
- Great for resisting finger prints and smudges
- Basically it’s a white VI8, that is going to be faster, better looking – BUT lacking an HDMI output.
I will have videos up in a few days of the eMMC speed, benchmarks (win and droid) and see if it’s worth the few extra bucks over the now super cheap $85 Chuwi Vi8 Z3735F dual OS tablet.
My full review will be up in a week or so.
Update:
The speaker is much louder and over all better than the original Vi8, which is great. The bad, the eMMC seems very slow around 50mbs max read and write speeds from some unknown NCard brand eMMC?… Oh dear, Chuwi cut corners on not only removing the hdmi port, but the eMMC it seems.
zaphodbeeblebroks
btw.. what are the differences actually between one reviewed (ultimate) and one you are still waiting to be shipped? I just noticed extra letter in cpu name and lover resolution in ultimate version which totally confused me.. :S Cheers
Chris G
I think the Hi8 has the same exactly body. It’s basically the same in and out but with a 1920 x 1200 screen Vs the 1280 x 800 one, in terms of gaming it will mean store games and Android ones will run a bit slower at the higher res. The front camera might be 2MP to but can’t confirm this. I’m waiting for mine to ship and I have a feeling suppliers are all waiting on stock from Chuwi. It will hopefully ship out soon and I will have it in a week or two.
zaphodbeeblebroks
Can you give us a clue about ROM in general, battery life and camera as well your opinion on difficulties, risks on trying to root it before you put online whole review? I would really appreciate it asap cause it is same brand as CHUWI-Hi8 1920y1200 which is currently available for 85€ and i am considering grabbing one.. I understood you bought one as well and waiting for shipping now, no? Thanks again.. great site btw.. Cheers
Chris G
Sure, the front facing camera is infact unchanged at 0.3MP. It’s not good. barely passable for skype. The Rom is good, only one bloatware app and that’s the Chuwi store app thing in Chinese. Root is possible with iRoot or Kingo root from our downloads. The battery life looks about 4-5 hours depending on use. I need more time to get a full picture on battery life.
Chris G
Not cool, the eMMC is utter rubbish, around 45mbs maybe 50mbs read speeds max. Very slow! The speaker is better at least some things improved and others are worse… It could be I got a bad batch? Not impressed with the emmc at all.
Albert Iglesias
Love the review. I was about to pull the trigger on purchasing this on eBay, however the Hi8 version is also available via eBay. Could this be a scam or a pre sale? I’m curious about your thoughts Chris. Are resellers on eBay trustworthy.
Thanks
Chris G
Sellers on ebay are fine, the only thing is you need to check their feedback. The Hi8 looks good and I’m not sure if it’s shipping out just yet or it might have been delayed a week. Ask them if they have it on hand instock. The only downside is you tend to pay about 14% more for these tablets on ebay due to ebay and paypal fees.